Side Show

[JoizeyActor]

Posted: 11/15/03 at 4:47pm

I've heard of Side Show, but I never got to see it and I don't really know whats it about. I was listening to one song, "I Will Never Leave You", and I really enjoyed the song. Does anyone have any comments on this show?

Is the Cast Soundtrack worth getting? Perhaps an X-Mas present..

[Musetta1957]

Posted: 11/15/03 at 5:01pm

It's an awesome show.

And the CAST RECORDING is wonderful.

[Kev]

Posted: 11/15/03 at 5:28pm

I've found this to be a good reference site for the show...
http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/Balcony/2010/

I adore SIDE SHOW, and I am grateful that I was able to see it before it closed on Broadway. I also firmly believe that Emily and Alice should have won the TONY for their stunning performances.

I strongly recommend the cast recording.

[AugustBurns2]

Posted: 11/15/03 at 6:00pm

You must get the CD of Side Show! You won’t regret it!

I've seen 2 different, local productions of this amazing show. Once was at TheatreWorks in Mountain View, CA (outside of San Francisco, near San Jose) and the Children's Musical Theater in San Jose. At the Children's Musical Theater, I saw their production 3 times. When I took my mother to this production, I'll never forget what she said at intermission: "Wow." She said this 7 times in a row. She agreed with me: the show is stirring, mesmerizing, and unforgettable.

I was so surprised how the show constantly sold out at the TheatreWorks venue. I was lucky to get in! It’s a shame that it closed so early in New York.

You must see this show if you ever get the chance! It's almost genius!

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 11/15/03 at 6:56pm

Great show that failed because it was difficult to sell to tourists a musical about siamese twins

Updated On: 11/15/03 at 06:56 PM

[dotmarie]

Posted: 11/15/03 at 7:04pm

I've been wanting to get this cast recording for ages. I visited Florida this past summer and spotted it at the Virgin Records they have at Downtown Disney. I really wish I had gotten it now, because I can't find it anywhere here. I'll probably end up ordering it off Amazon, or something.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 11/15/03 at 7:21pm

I was excited to see this topic pop up. It's one of my favorites of the past decade -- I saw it several times, and second-acted it when it was doing really badly (you could walk in and sit upstairs; the balcony was empty, and the ushers were kind...) I had an immediate strong, emotional attraction to the material, as musicalized by Krieger and Russel. I thought the streamlined story worked well (a potentially predictable show biz tale, it avoided much of the cornball tough road to the middle stuff that's weighing down BOY FROM OZ and TABOO, by the way. We really got to know the two women as different people.) But, I recently got into a bit of a debate at this very board about the show's/score's merits with one of the sharpest and most knowledgeable people who post regularly here... So it's not everyone's cup of tea. Many things that people balked at -- the twins' last number is the poignantly ironic yet NOT campy "I Will Never Leave You" -- were the very aspects of the show that spoke to me. Talk about taking the idea of "love the one you're with" to the max!

I still play the CD with some regularity, and enjoy the "minor" numbers, particularly the Norm Lewis ballads, and the twins' lighter fare. It's the kind of show you can't convince people to love. A guilty pleasure? The year it opened, I gave the CD to many (out of NY) for Christmas, and many friends couldn't figure out why I was so enamored with it. That's why we have boards like this, isn't it? To celebrate the different strokes of many different folks.

Updated On: 11/15/03 at 07:21 PM

[bob8rich]

Posted: 11/15/03 at 8:03pm

The CD of Side Show is a MUST! It is full of wonderful songs and great vocal perfromances from Alice Ripley, Emily Skinner, Hugh Panaro, Jeff McCarthy & Norm Lewis. It is one of the show I never got to see that I really wish I had been able to see. When I first heard the CD it blew me away - and it still does.

[JohnPopa]

Posted: 11/15/03 at 9:15pm

On the other hand ...

I don't like SIDE SHOW in the slightest. I think it's a mess of a show that white washes its bold (and potentially compelling) subject matter by turning everything into inappropriately-styled power ballads and reducing the true drama of the period and the characters into predictable mid-90's easy listening sentiment. (I will never leave you, I will never go away, we were meant to be together ...)

SIDE SHOW was material desperately needing tone and creative style, instead we got a popera score filled with forced recitative and embarrasing rhymes and motivations (not to mention forumalic song choices, 'I want songs' into oblivion for the two girls and their suitors.) The writers (and I think Henry Krieger is talented, but this isn't a patch on Dreamgirls) frequently found themselves without anything to do and added key changes and gratuitous production numbers to create the illusion of action, added layer after layer of sexual subtext that frequently abandoned the truly unique lives of the characters involved.

There are moments in the show, sure. And some of the tunes are decent enough, especially when ratcheted to the stratosphere and belted out by over-emotive actors (who, to be fair, had nothing else to do BUT emote.) The show does create a stir in the air in the theater, one that evaporates the moment the material is analyzed in even the most basic of ways.

[MusicMan]

Posted: 11/15/03 at 9:24pm

And even as you're watching and hearing it.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 11/15/03 at 10:22pm

See? I told you: not everyone's taste.

If I step back from it, I can be objective; I see the POVs of both Papa and MusicMan ... both posts are thoughtful and take the time to explain the critical whys, to dig into how the more maudelin elements do take over at times..

But the damned thing still gets to me in 2003.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 11/15/03 at 10:24pm

Music Man should be a critic as I have yet to hear of any musical he admits to liking.

[King Stevos]

Posted: 11/15/03 at 11:04pm

The only problem that I have with Side show is the lyrics... But I love the power ballads! And I want to be Jake, yes there can be a white Jake.

STEVOS

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/16/03 at 1:57am

I really like Side Show very much.

Roxy, are you aware that producers invite critics to shows? Perhaps you should boycott any show whose producers invite critics! That way, you can finally put to rest your constant nattering generalizations about how critics never like anything.

By the way, remember when you said you'd be man enough to admit that you were wrong when you were wrong about something? Did you notice the score for Taboo was not attacked for being "pop?" Did ya? The critics hate pop music, you said. Taboo will be fried for having pop songs, you said. Tick ... tick... tick....

[Horsey]

Posted: 11/16/03 at 2:20am

Good grief.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/16/03 at 2:21am

You. Of all people.

[TEACHEROFTHEATER]

Posted: 11/16/03 at 10:12am

I never saw SideShow but the cd is ok. It is fun and engaging, but certainly not one for the ages.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/16/03 at 11:36am

Oh. So that's the measure now, whether or not something is for the ages? Alas, we with our mortal limitations will never know what lasts a couple of centuries.

Posted: 11/17/03 at 1:58pm

The cast recording is definitely, definitely worth getting! Alice Ripley and Emily Skinner give superb performances, and let's not forget Norm Lewis' 11'oclock, "You should be loved"

[say what?]

Posted: 11/17/03 at 3:49pm

If only to bask in Jeff McCarthy, Norm Lewis, and Emily Skinner's voices, is the cast recording a must have.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 12/3/03 at 9:04am

'Hate to promo another site, but after the heated debate(s) here, there's a raging, contentious discourse over at All That Chat re the merits of SIDE SHOW. Anyone gaga over the show -- or wanting to bury it with a fresh shovel of dirt -- might want to check it out. I was espcially intrigued to read a couple of odd posts -- that it closed because Emily Skinner missed performances (as if she were Hugh Jackman) ...and that people reacted negatively to the "lack of production values..." Whatever. It's just FYI.

Updated On: 12/3/03 at 09:04 AM

[ShineOn]

Posted: 12/3/03 at 11:33am

*sigh* CLEARLY it wasn't Emily's fault. I'm so sick of all the bull**** and little digs at Emily left and right for her absences and canceling. Performers are human, too. The debate of professionalism is absurd. I mean, yes, it's disappointing, but a person's health, whether it be physical or mental, should come before all else. Dub a person unreliable... don't hire her, then. If people are still hiring her, then obviously they're not AS concerned... other's should just back off.

But there's no way the show had a short run because of Emily's absences... people wouldn't have gone regardless... Emily didn't hold that much clout. People were loving Lauren when she went on... such is life.

I hate talkinbroadway sometimes.

[JohnPopa]

Posted: 12/3/03 at 11:40am

I agree Emily had nothing to do with SIDE SHOW's failure.

I mean, she didn't write it, did she?

[ShineOn]

Posted: 12/3/03 at 12:28pm

And no there can't be a white Jake... Stevos... do you know the concept of Side Show??? There's a WHOLE subplot that Jake is in LOVE with Violet but Violet CAN'T be with him because he's BLACK. That's like me saying, "I *really* want to play Effie in Dreamgirls and I can SO sing the part... everyone tells me I sound like a big black woman... f*ck it, there can be a white Effie because I said so!!!"

I don't know if you were being sarcastic, but in the past you have been under the assumption that there's a *possiblity* you could play him. There's no way... you'll have to stick to Terry. Sorry.


And yeah, folks need to stop blaming Em! People at talkinbroadway are usually not the nicest toward her. *sigh* What can ya do?

[Auggie27]

Posted: 12/3/03 at 12:37pm

Folks, what is the story about Skinner's absentee record? She and Audra McDonald have absolutely the worst reps. Emily even missed a couple of JC SUPERSTARS in Nyack, a show she hardly carried. Does she have vocal problems, or is she a diva who is co-dependent to the audience, you know, "if I can't give 'em my best, I can't go on!" I am a fan, so don't smack me. I always wondered why she was out so much. I remember walking pastFULLY MONTY, with a pal, and, a few drinks under my belt, and saying "I bet she's out tonight! Wanna bet?!" And damned if she wasn't posted as out.